Courtesy of LA Tech Athletic Communications
Louisiana Tech won another heart-stopper Thursday night, edging Jacksonville State 58-57 at Pete Mathews Coliseum for their 13th straight win.
“I am proud of our group for finding a way to win on the road tonight,” said head coach Brooke Stoehr. “They tried to slow the game down, and we just could not get any flow or rhythm offensively. We got off to a poor start defensively and put them at the free throw line too many times in that first quarter.
“We were able to get some critical stops when we needed them. We needed to get the ball moving better offensively and were able to get out in transition a few times to get some easy baskets. Bottom line is this group found another way to win on the road in late February. We have to have a short memory and get regrouped for another tough road game on Saturday.”
The Lady Techsters (20-5, 13-1) quickly found themselves in a 4-0 hole as Jax State scored on their first two attempts. LA Tech would answer but the lead would stretch to as much as five before a Joy Madison-Key and-one layup would give the Lady Techsters their first lead 13-12. The Gamecocks would close the quarter on a 10-3 run to take a 21-16 lead heading to the benches. Louisiana Tech was outrebounded 8-4 and out assisted 5-2.
Louisiana Tech tied the game three separate times in the second quarter, only managing to take the lead once. Neither defense could string together stops with both offenses trading baskets throughout the quarter. LA Tech would finally break through with a Jianna Morris three pointer to take the lead into halftime 32-29, the first Lady Techster three pointer of the game. The triple capped off a 7-0 run for the Lady Techsters.
In the first half, Louisiana Tech only led for 0:29 of game time. Morris was the only Lady Techster in double figures with 12 points, shooting a perfect 4-4 from the field while playing all 20 minutes.
The Gamecocks struck first in the third, making a triple to tie the game. There would be another tie until LA Tech would hit their second triple of the game, stretching the lead to seven for Louisiana Tech. After the three pointer however, the Lady Techsters would close the final three minutes of the quarter with zero points and four turnovers, allowing the Gamecocks to close the gap to two.
Jacksonville State struck first again, scoring the first five points of the frame to take a 48-45 lead. A Maria Sanchez Ponce triple would stretch the lead to four with seven minutes to play, but the Lady Techsters quickly closed the gap with two layups to tie. Another Alexia Weaver layup would give LA Tech a one point lead heading into the final media timeout. Weaver’s free throw would give Louisiana Tech a two point cushion going into the final minute, but a Jacksonville State layup tied the game with 26 seconds to play.
The Lady Techsters used up as much clock as they could and on Kaleigh Thompsons attempt to win the game, she was fouled. Thompson would sink the first, and miss the second, allowing Jax State to rebound and advance the ball with a timeout. Ponce drove as the seconds ticked away, but slipped on her attempt and was called for a travel, ending the contest.
After only having one game during their win streak be a single digit victory, Louisiana Tech has now won two games in a row by one point in the same fashion. Late free throws.
Morris led Louisiana Tech with 15 points, her fourth time leading the Lady Techsters in scoring this season. Thompson was close behind with 14, having a team leading eight rebounds. Madison-Key led LA Tech with three assists, her third game in a row leading the Lady Techsters and 13th time on the season.
Tech has a three-game lead in the race for the CUSA title with only four games remaining as they head to face Kennesaw State on Saturday.
